Five Grooveshark employees agree individual settlements in major label lawsuit

In an ongoing lawsuit with a number of major record labels, four of Grooveshark's former employees, plus another still at the company, have agreed to a "consent judgment" banning them from infringing major label copyrights and working for similar companies that 'systematically infringe upon' label copyrights in the future.

An extract from the agreement, obtained by TorrentFreak reads: “The Defendant and all those acting in concert with the Defendant shall be immediately and permanently enjoined from infringing in any manner any copyright in any and all sound recordings, whether now in existence or later created, in which any of the Plaintiffs own or control any exclusive rights under Section 106 of the United States Copyright Act (the “Copyrighted Works”).”

“This shall include, but is not limited to, copying, uploading, reproducing, distributing, transmitting or publicly performing any of the Copyrighted Works in violation of the United States Copyright Act, via the Grooveshark service or any other online streaming service, website, application, or peer-to-peer or file-trading system that operates without authority or license from the appropriate Plaintiff or any of its licensees.”

The case was brought in 2011 by a number of labels (including Universal, Sony, Warner) for mass copyright infringement, could spell the end for Grooveshark.

Grooveshark founders Sam Tarantino and Josh Greenberg have not signed an agreement.

A Grooveshark statement sent to TorrentFreak read: “We are pleased that the case between Universal Music and Escape Media has been narrowed and simplified by the removal of some individual defendants from the case upon their stipulation to simply obey the law — something Escape Media does every day through its active licensing of millions of tracks and its strict compliance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Escape Media Group will continue to deliver innovative new solutions and services that revolutionise music consumption for its growing audience of 30 million+ fans around the world.”